Contractors who constructed the government much touted toilet projects, dubbed New World Contractors Association of Ghana (NWCAG) feel outsmarted by the Nana Akuffo-Addo and Dr. Mahamoudu Bawumia administration.
At press conference held in Accra, the chairman of the Association, Emmanuel Dapaah charged the Akuffo-Addo/Bawumia led NPP government to pay them their money.
They argued that cunning they are being handled made them believe the New Patriotic Party, NPP government is just full of Sakawa people, “we have been given a bad deal”, the chairman lamented.
“…..the government goes round using projects that we have constructed with our own money to campaign, but denying having a contract with us though all our construction were done on government lands, one of the contractors stated.
This government is just a 419 government, we want our money, the members chanted. “They ask us to deal with Ghana first company which some appointees are behind but when we ask them to stop campaign with the projects if they are not directly owning up to it”, chairman disclosed.
“Bawumia must pay us our money, if he has placed a tracker on our projects and owning it. Not even a single pesewa has been paid to us. We want our money or we will expose more of their scam that we have on record”, the Contractors threatened.
At the conference, the contractors gave the media project specifications and cost of each project as follows, 14 seater at the cost of Two Hundred and Ninety Thousand, Four Hundred and Eighty Four Ghana Cedis (GHC 290,484.00).
16 seater at the cost of Three Hundred and Twenty Six Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifty Nine Ghana Cedis and Thirty Six pesewas (GHC 326,259.36).
20 seater (A) at the cost of Five Hundred and Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Thirty Five Ghana Cedis (GHC 503,935.00), and 20 seater (B) at the cost of Three Hundred and Thirty Three Thousand, Six Hundred and Seventy Six Ghana Cedis (GHC 333,676.00) respectively.
The chairman of NWCAG hinted that “Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in delivering his address on the infrastructure projects executed by his government made reference to a lot of the projects we have done”. “…..how can we be denied our money but for the government to claim credit for those projects?”, Mr. Dapaah quizzed.
To this effect, he stressed that, “we see this as a deliberate attempt by the Nana Akuffo-Addo led NPP Government and Ghana First Company to kill the spirit of contractors in this regard”. The frustrated Contractors said they procured loans from banks to execute the projects the NPP pride themselves with.
Now, we are being chased by those banks for repayment. Several appeals to Mr. Frank Akuley, the C.E.O. of the Ghana First Company Limited have fallen on death ears, and he blames the government for the delays”, chairman Emmanuel Dapaah posited.
However, he sounds a warning that, “we are using this medium to draw the attention of the government to our plight. The government should come out to state its position on this matter. We don’t want to believe that this is a scam which has been endorsed by this government”.
The contracts were awarded to individual contractors between the period 2017 and 2019, and they ( Contractors) were to pre-finance the project and after 60% completion, the amount involved shall be paid to the contractor.
The New World Contractors Association of Ghana (NWCAG) gave the government 10 days to pay them their money.
The NWCAG further threatened that if the government failed to pay them within the stipulated time, it would press ask its members, their families and workers not to vote or they would rather join to campaign massively against the government in the upcoming elections.
The press conference further threatened to expose all the MMDCE’s who took between 5% – 15% from their members before awarding the contracts knowing very well that Ghana First took only 2%.
